Door hinge

ABSTRACT

A concealed door hinge is disclosed capable of simultaneously pivoting two adjacent doors from a central frame. The door hinge is easily installable and is adaptable for automatic closure of the door by action of gravity. The invention insures security between adjacent doors making the hinge desirable for use in security locker arrays. The foregoing abstract is merely a resume of one general application, is not a complete discussion of all principles of operation or applications, and is not to be construed as a limitation on the scope of the claimed subject matter.

United States Patent 1191 Swank Jan. 28, 1975 1 DOOR HINGE [75]Inventor: David T. Swank, Millersburg, Ohio [73] Assignee: The FlexibleCompany, Loudonville,

Ohio

[221 Filed: Feb. 21, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 334,269

[52] US. Cl [6/128 R, 16/136, 16/152, 16/153,16/171- [51] Int. Cl. E05d9/00 [58] Field of Search 16/176, 171, 168, 164,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,323,344 12/1919 Willard16/128 R 1,719,253 7/1929 White 16/128 R X 1,747,003 2/1930 Hammer232/24 1,944,386 1/1934 Winslow 16/152 2,020,553 11/1935 Hughes 16/128 R2,700,791 2/1955 Vogel 16/168 X 2,754,536 7/1956 Troche et al.... 16/128R 3,008,176 11/1961 Paine et a1. 16/176 X 3,083,402 4/1963 Foltz 16/1533,594,851 7/1971 Swatton 16/136 3,784,089 1/1974 KOCh 232/24 FOREIGNPATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS 210,146 6/1966 Sweden 16/171 635,744 2/1963Belgium 113/128 R 899,670 8/1944 France 16/128 R Primary ExuminerRoy D.Frazier Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Woodling, Krost, Granger & Rust ABSTRACT 3 Claims, 7 DrawingFigures noon HINGE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates tohinges and more particularly to a hinge for simultaneously suspendingtwo doors.

Pivot assemblies to suspend doors and the like have been known to theprior art for a great number of years. However, progress to makestronger and less expensive door hinges is still a current challenge tothis art. The challenge to make a stronger and less expensive door hingeis especially predominant in the use of lockers in schools, factoriesand especially in bus and airport depots. In these installations, anarray of lockers provides temporary storage for transients or securitystorage for assigned persons. A very expensive portion of the array oflockers is due to the hinge construction of each door of the lockerarray. The hinges must be strong to protect valuables from vandalism andyet be economically feasible to enable marketing of a large array oflockers. Many of the prior art hinges installed on lockers were exposedhinges requiring as many as four hinges to maintain proper security indepots subject to vandalism.

The installation of four hinges per door made the construction andalignment of the hinges during manufacture, a difficult and costly step.However, eliminating two of the four hinges reduced the security of thelocker. The four-hinge door had the additional disadvantage that it didnot lend itself well to an automatic door closing provision.

Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide an improved doorhinge which has concealed pivots to provide a more secure locker.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door hingewhich is capable of simultaneously pivoting two adjacent doors.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door hingewhich is adaptable for automatic closing of the doors.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door hingewhich is easily installable.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door hingewhich is secured between adjacent lockers.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved door hingewhich is of substantial economic savings over the prior art door hinges.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention may be incorporated in a hinge toprovide simultaneous pivots from a frame for a first and a second doorwherein each door has a surface having a pivot aperture, comprising incombination, means for establishing the first door on one side of theframe with the pivot aperture of the first door adjacent to the frame,means for establishing the second door on the other side of the framewith the pivot aperture of the second door adjacent to the frame, hingemeans, and means for fastening said hinge means to the frame with saidhinge means extending from said sides of the frame to cooperate with thepivot apertures to provide simultaneous pivots for the first and seconddoors.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had byreferring to the following description and claims, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is the preferred embodimentshowing a sectional view of a door hinge to simultaneously pivotadjacent doors from a frame;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a modification of the door hinge shown inFIG. 1 to pivot a single door;

FIG. 3 is a front view of a locker array suitable for incorporating thedisclosed invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a modification of the door hingeshown in FIG. 1 including provisions for automatically closing the door;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the door hinge shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a modification of a door hinge in FIG. 1including provisions for automatically closing the door; and,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a spacer shown in FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 is a sectional view of ahinge to provide simultaneous pivots from a frame 10 for a first door 11and a second door 12 wherein each door has a surface having a pivotaperture 13 and 14, respectively. The first door 11 is established onone side of the frame 10 with the pivot aperture 13 of the first door 11adjacent to the frame 10 and the second door 12 is established on theother side of the frame 10 with the pivot aperture 14 of the second door12 adjacent to the frame 10. Hinge means 17 is fixed to the frame 10with the hinge means 17 extending from the sides of the frame 10 tocooperate with the pivot apertures 13 and 14 to provide simultaneouspivots for the first door 11 and the second door 12.

The first and second doors 11 and 12 are shown as sheet metal memberswherein the first door 11 has a flange or portion 19 establishedsubstantially perpendicular to a front surface 20 of the first door 11which portion 19 contains the pivot aperture 13. Similarly, the seconddoor 12 has a flange or portion 21 containing the pivot aperture 14which portion 21 is established substantially perpendicular to a frontsurface 22 of the second door 12. In this embodiment, the axis of thehinge means 17 is shown being substantially vertical with the first door11 being a top door and the second door 12 being a bottom door relativeto the frame 10. The frame 10 is shown located between the first andsecond doors 11 and 12 and having a frame aperture 15 which is locatedadjacent to the pivot apertures 13 and 14 of the first and second doors11 and 12. The first door 11 is established adjacent to the frame 10 byspacer means 23 having a spacer aperture which spacer aperture isadjacent to the frame aperture 15 and the pivot aperture 13. The seconddoor 12 is established by other means such as a bottom hinge, not shown,to be adjacent to the frame 10 with the pivot aperture 14 in closeproximity to the frame aperture 15. The hinge means 17 has pivot meansshown as sleeves 24 and 25 which extend from a given line through thehinge means 17 in proximity to the frame aperture 15 in twosubstantially opposite directions along the axis of the hinge meansl7.The sleeves 24 and 25 abut the frame 10 and extend from the sides ofthe frame 10 to cooperate with apertures 13 and 14 to provide pivots forthe first and second doors 11 and 12. The hinge means 17 includes afirst and a second fastener 31 and 32, respectively, which areengageable with one another through the frame aperture 15 to secure thehinge means 17 to the frame 10. The first and second fasteners 31 and 32in this embodiment are shown as threaded fasteners, the first fastener31 being a socket head cap screw whereas the second threaded fastener 32is a selflocking nut such as a nut with a deformable insert or a nutwith partly deformed threads. The first and second fasteners 31 and 32engage the sleeves 24 and 25 against the frame and a portion of thefirst fastener 31 extends through the frame aperture to engage with thesecond fastener 32. In FIG. 1 the sleeves 24 and 25 extend fromsubstantially the same location of the frame 10 to suspend the firstdoor 11 along the same pivotable axis as the second door 12. The secondfastener 32 is shown as a self-locking nut to insure security betweenadjacent lockers. For example, the hinge means 17 engaged with the frame10 by the first and second fasteners 31 and 32 cannot be removed withoutaccess to both the top and bottom of the frame 10, that is, access totwo adjacent lockers. The fasteners 31 and 32 have been shown asthreaded fasteners but it is understood that engagement need not be bythreads but can be by welds, rivets, jam washers and the like.

FIG. 2 is a modification of FIG. 1 showing a hinge means to suspend asingle door 39 from a frame 40 which is shown as a sheet metal frameincluding a subframe 41 attached to the frame 40 by welds 42 and 43creating a tubular frame assembly. The door 39 has a bottom portion 53having a pivot aperture 54 which is located adjacent to a frame aperture55 of the frame 40. A weld nut 57 is fastened to the underside of theframe 40 by welds 58 and 59. The bottom portion 53 of the door 39 isspaced from the frame 40 by spacer means 61 in a manner similar to thespacer means 23 in FIG. 1. Pivot means shown as a sleeve 64 extendsthrough an aperture of the spacer means 61 to abut the frame 40 to pivotthe door 39 from the frame 40. A threaded fastener 65 extends throughthe sleeve 64, spacer means 61 and frame aperture 55 to the weld nut 57to provide a bottom pivot for the door 39. A combination of the hingesshown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are adequate to completely suspend a plurality oflocker doors located within a locker array.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a locker array including eight lockers 71-78.The tubular frame 40 shown in FIG. 2 extends about the perimeter of theeight lockers 71-78 whereas the lockers are separated by three frames10A-10C which are similar in detail to frame 10 in FIG. 1. The hingesshown in FIG. 2 are used to provide top pivots for lockers 71 and 72 andbottom pivots for lockers 77 and 78. The hinges shown in FIG. 1 providesimultaneous bottom and top pivots for lockers 71, 73; 72, 74; 73, 75;74, 76; 75, 77 and 76, 78. Whereas, the prior art required at leastsixteen hinges to suspend eight locker doors, that is, two hinges perdoor; the dis closed invention requires only ten hinges including fourhinges as shown in FIG. 2 and six hinges as shown in FIG. 1. In general,the prior art incorporated four exposed hinges per door totaling 32hinges for an eight locker array but with the disclosed invention, onlyten concealed hinges are required to suspend doors of the same eightlocker array of FIG. 3. The use of concealed hinges instead of exposedhinges adds to the security of the locker array.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of hinge means 17A which is a modificationof the hinge means 17 shown in FIG. 1 and including means for producingan upward movement of the center of mass of one of the first and seconddoors 11 and 12 when that door is pivoted from a first position to asecond position to enable an automatic return to the first position byaction of gravity. The hinge means 17A comprises a U-shaped member 80forming a slot 81 to cooperate with a portion of the frame 10 shown inFIG. 1. A first and a second pivot means 24A and 25A are fastened toopposite sides of the U-shaped member 80 to extend from the hinge means17A in two substantially opposite directions with the pivot axis of thefirst pivot means 24A displaced from the pivot axis of the second pivotmeans 25A. The displacement of the pivot axis from one another is in twodirections relative to the U-shaped member 80. The U-shaped member 80can be of any sturdy metallic material which may be bent subsequent tothe fastening of the first and second pivot means 24A and 25A.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the hinge means 17A shown in FIG. 4installed on a frame 10D similar to the frame 10 in FIG. 1. The firstpivot means 24A has a head 84 which is fastened to the U-shaped member80 by welds 86 and 87 whereas the second pivot means 25A has a head 89which is fixed to the U-shaped member 80 by welds 90 and 91. When thehinge means 17A is assembled as shown in FIG. 4, the hinge means 17A isthen established on the frame 10D as shown in FIG. 5 to be weldedthereto by welds 93 and 94. Although the welds in FIG. 5 are shown asspot welds, the pivot means 24A and 25A and the attachment of theU-shape member 80 to the frame 10 can be made in any suitable manner.The assembly produces a utilized hinge means for simultaneously pivotingadjacent doors wherein the axis of the first pivot means 24A isdisplaced from the axis of the second pivot means 25A. In FIG. 5 theaxis of pivot means 24A is shown displaced to the left of the axis ofpivot means 25A and in addition the axis of pivot means 25A is displacedin a direction perpendicular to the surface of the paper. The hingemeans 17A shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 has the advantage that a frame aperturein the frame 10D is not required. When the hinge means 17A shown in theFIGS. 4 and 5 is used for suspending the top and bottom of a given door,the top pivot will be offset from the bottom pivot to produce avertically upward movement of the center of mass of the door when thedoor is pivoted. The pivots can be offset such that the center of massof the door will raise when the door is opened thereby enablingautomatic return of the door to the closed position by action ofgravity.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a modification of FIG. 1 incorporating anautomatic door return. The first door 11 has a portion 19A which formsan obtuse angle with the front surface 20 of the first door 11. Theframe 10 has an indented portion 96 to secure spacer means 23A fromrotation with the spacer means 23A establishing the first door 11 to beadjacent to the frame 10. The top surface of the spacer means 23A formsan acute angle realtive to the frame 10 and cooperates with the angle ofthe bottom portion 19A of the first door 11. A point 103 on the bottomportion 19A of the first door 11 rests on a corner 100 of the spacermeans 23A. The cooperation between the spacer means 23A and the bottomportion 19A produces a vertical movement of the center of mass of thefirst door 11 when the door is rotated. By proper indexing the spacermeans 23A, the assembly can be established to automatically return thefirst door 11 to a closed or an open position.

formed by the pivot means 24, the point 103 moves, for 1 example, tocorner 102 thereby raising the center of mass of the first door 11. Whenthe first door 11 is released, the first door 11 will rotate to theclosed position by action of gravity.

The invention has been described in particular using threaded fastenersin FIGS. 1, 2 and 6 and welded pivot means in FIGS. 4 and 5 but it is tobe understood that these representations are only by way of example andare not to be considered limiting upon the term hinge means as used inthis disclosure.

The present disclosure includes that contained in the appended claims,as well as that of the foregoing description. Although this inventionhas been described in its preferred form with a certain degree ofparticularlity, it is understood that the present disclosure of thepreferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerouschanges in the details of construction and the combination andarrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from thespirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is: l. A concealed hinge to provide simultaneous pivotsfrom a frame having a frame aperture to a first and a second doorwherein each door has a pivot surface having a pivot aperture, whereinthe pivot surface is substantially perpendicular to the front surface ofthe door, comprising in combination:

means for spacing the first door from one side of the frame with thepivot surface and the pivot aperture of the first door adjacent to theframe aperture;

means for spacing the second door on the other side of the frame withthe pivot surface and the pivot aperture of the second door adjacent tothe frame aperture;

hinge means including a male and a female threaded fastener and a firstand a second sleeve, each sleeve having an outside diameter forpivotable cooperation with the pivot apertures;

and means including said male and female threaded fasteners forfastening said hinge means to the frame with said sleeves extending fromthe frame through the pivot apertures to independently pivot the firstand second doors and to substantially conceal said hinge means by thefront surfaces of the doors in conjunction with the frame.

2. A concealed door hinge to provide a simultaneous bottom pivot for afirst door and a top pivot for a second door from a frame having a frameaperture wherein the bottom of the first door and the top of the seconddoor each has a pivot aperture, comprising in combination:

spacer means having a spacer aperture being substantially equal in sizeto the pivot aperture for spacing the bottom of the first door above theframe with the pivot aperture of the first door adjacent to the frameaperture;

means for establishing the top of the second door below the frame withthe pivot aperture of the second door adjacent to the frame aperture;

hinge means including a male and a female threaded fastener with saidmale fastener having a crosssection substantially equal in size to saidframe aperture; said hinge means including a first and a second sleeveeach having an inside diameter for receiving said male fastener and eachhaving an outside diameter for pivotable cooperation with the pivotapertures;

means for fastening said threaded fasteners and said sleeves to theframe with said male fastener extending through the frame aperture withsaid first sleeve receiving said male fastener and extending from theframe and through said spacer aperture in said spacer means to cooperatewith the pivot aperture on the bottom of the first door to provide abottom pivot and with said second sleeve receiving said male fastenerand extending from the frame to cooperate with the pivot aperture on thetop of the second door to provide a top pivot,

and said fastening means locating said hinge means on the frame forsubstantially concealing said hinge means by the front surfaces of thefirst and second doors and the frame.

3. A door hinge as set forth in claim 2, wherein said spacer meansincludes a top surface which forms an acute angle relative to the axisof one of said sleeves to produce an upward movement of the center ofmass of the first door when the first door is pivoted from a first to asecond position to enable automatic return to said first position byaction of gravity.

1. A concealed hinge to provide simultaneous pivots from a frame havinga frame aperture to a first and a second door wherein each door has apivot surface having a pivot aperture, wherein the pivot surface issubstantially perpendicular to the front surface of the door, comprisingin combination: means for spacing the first door from one side of theframe with the pivot surface and the pivot aperture of the first dooradjacent to the frame aperture; means for spacing the second door on theother side of the frame with the pivot surface and the pivot aperture ofthe second door adjacent to the frame aperture; hinge means including amale and a female threaded fastener and a first and a second sleeve,each sleeve having an outside diameter for pivotable cooperation withthe pivot apertures; and means including said male and female threadedfasteners for fastening said hinge means to the frame with said sleevesextending from the frame through the pivot apertures to independentlypivot the first and second doors and to substantially conceal said hingemeans by the front surfaces of the doors in conjunction with the frame.2. A concealed door hinge to provide a simultaneous bottom pivot for afirst door and a top pivot for a second door from a frame having a frameaperture wherein the bottom of the first door and the top of the seconddoor each has a pivot aperture, comprising in combination: spacer meanshaving a spacer aperture being substantially equal in size to the pivotaperture for spacing the bottom of the first door above the frame withthe pivot aperture of the first door adjacent to the frame aperture;means for establishing the top of the second door below the frame withthe pivot aperture of the second door adjacent to the frame aperture;hinge means including a male and a female threaded fastener with saidmale fastener having a cross-section substantially equal in size to saidframe aperture; said hinge means including a first and a second sleeveeach having an inside diameter for receiving said male fastener and eachhaving an outside diameter for pivotable cooperation with the pivotapertures; means for fastening said threaded fasteners and said sleevesto the frame with said male fastener extending through the frameaperture with said first sleeve receiving said male fastener andextending from the frame and through said spacer aperture in said spacermeans to cooperate with the pivot aperture on the bottom of the firstdoor to provide a bottom pivot and with said second sleeve receivingsaid male fastener and extending from the frame to cooperate with thepivot aperture on the top of the second door to provide a top pivot, andsaid fastening means locating said hinge means on the frame forsubstantially concealing said hinge means by the front surfaces of thefirst and second doors and the frame.
 3. A door hinge as set forth inclaim 2, wherein said spacer means includes a top surface which forms anacute angle relative to the axis of one of said sleeves to produce anupward movement of the center of mass of the first door when the firstdoor is pivoted from a first to a second position to enable automaticreturn to said first position by action of gravity.